At present the main parameters of production processes, such as completeness of combustion and fuel spray temperature in burning fuel, yield and propeties of end products in the chemical industry depend on quality of mixture formation and atomization of components of a fuel mixture.
The advent of more viscous grades of liquid fuel, sludges of petroleum refineries and strongly ballasted types of natural gases and off-gases in the practice of combustion requires continuous improvement of apparatus for mixture formation and preparation of fuel and air mixtures. Provision of a short luminous spray with boundaries appreciably spaced from refractory walls of combustion chambers enables an improvement of reliability and prolongation of service life of combustion plants. Improvement of completeness of gas combustion enables an improved yield of carbon black in the production of carbon black. Provision of a pre-set angle of spray of a feedstock in high-velocity flows up to 600 m/s enables an improvement of reinforcing properties of carbon black which is an active filler of rubber to be used in the manufacture of tyres and industrial rubber products. Moreover, aerodynamics of flame and its hydrodynamic structure depend to a large degree on characteristics of apparatus for mixing and atomization of a fuel and air mixture which depending on characteristics of combustion devices, affect the process of formation of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons.
Known in the art is an aerodynamic apparatus for mixing components of a fuel mixture, comprising a cylindrical chamber for swirling a flow of a gaseous component of a fuel mixture which is fed through at least one pipe for admission of a gaseous component arranged in direct proximity to an end wall of the cylindrical chamber tangentially to the cylindrical surface and which is let out through a cylindrical outlet pipe for the component arranged in the other end wall coaxially with the chamber (cf. E. N. Shurkin, Gas Burner Device with an Acoustic Generator (in Russian), Jr. Gazovaya promyshlennost, No. 11, 1967, pp. 42-46).
A flow of gaseous hydrocarbons is fed to the chamber. The flow is swirled and moves in the radial direction towards the central part of the chamber and also along a helical path towards the outlet pipe. The flow of hydrocarbons which continues its rotary and linear motion in the outlet pipe flows out of an outlet opening into the surrounding space where it is mixed with a concentrical air flow fed in the form of a linear or slightly swirled jet. The air jet is fed along a pipeline provided with an aerodynamic device. During the outflow of the vertical flow of hydrocarbons the air induces a reverse flow rotating in the same direction but moving linearly in the opposite direction. Interaction of the two flows generates acoustic oscillations which are used for mixing the air with the flow of hydrocarbons and with combustion products.
The efficiency of atomization and stirring of the flow of hydrocarbons is, however, low. The cost of swirling of the hydrocarbon flow is, at the same time, high. The use of only tangential admission of the flow of hydrocarbons into the chamber and the axial outlet strongly influence the flame stability during the process of combustion of an air and hydrocarbon mixture.